PHILADELPHIA – Junior striker Ricshya Walker scored three goals on Sunday afternoon as the La Salle Explorers hammered the visiting Temple Owls, 5-1. It is the first hat trick a La Salle player has scored since Kelli McGroarty hit the same number on 10/9/22 vs Fordham.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• La Salle began the game on the offensive, with three shots in the first nine minutes.   
• The Explorers kept pushing, with the first attempt on target coming in the 14^th minute with a shot from Gabby Picco.
• Temple capitalized off an offensive zone turnover to score on a fast break opportunity in the 23^rd minute.
• The game picked up intensity following the goal. Both sides fired off several shots high of the net. Picco and Elizabeth Estrada volleyed off a couple of shots on target that were saved by the Temple keeper.
• The Explorers got on the board in the 30^th minute. Picco scored off of a perfectly placed ball from Sunni DiElmo on a corner kick.
• La Salle kept the pressure up, with five shots in the closing 15 minutes of the first half. The game stayed knotted at one heading into the half.
• After a slow few minutes to start the second half, Walker fired off a couple of balls wide of the cage in the 56^th minute. Michela Auguadro made her first save of the afternoon in the 58^th minute.
• In the 61^st minute, La Salle scored on a brilliant counter-attack off a Temple goal kick. Freshman Niki Siafarika found Justyce Hollenbach upfield, who laid it in front of Walker who outran two Temple defenders and booted the ball into the bottom right of the goal.
• The Explorers continued to hammer the offensive end till they broke through again only eight minutes later. Walker dazzled on the near wing, moving herself free of multiple Temple defenders and firing a perfect ball to the far side of the goal mouth to put La Salle up a pair of scores.
• Walker completed the hat trick with another stellar goal, this one from the top of the box after shaking herself free at the top of the box and placing the ball perfectly in the top left corner of the net, extending the lead to three.
• In the 87^th minute, Kameron Rase put the exclamation point on the win. Estrada evaded several Owl defenders and worked her way down the left wing and found Rase waiting in front of the goal to slam it home to give the Explorers their fifth and final goal of the afternoon.

GAME NOTES

• Five goals are the most that La Salle has scored this season. It is the sixth consecutive game that the Explorers have scored two or more goals.
• The win extends La Salle's win streak to four games, and undefeated streak to six.
• DiElmo and Hollenbach have both earned at least one point in two straight games.

UP NEXT

• The Explorers conclude the non-conference slate with a trip to Lehigh on Thursday at 6 pm. The game will stream on ESPN+.